SABAJ PHA3 Vacuum Tube Headphone Amplifier 2X6J9 Low Ground Noise Integrated Stereo Amp Audio HIFI Output Protection for Headphone

Bought this at £29.99 as a as new used item, arrived 2 days later and it looks brand new to me with all the packaging, accessories and box etc so saving myself a tenner is a good start! Build quality is excellent, weighty little amp a bit smaller than expcted but that doesnt matter. iam running this from my Rega Apollo CD player into my Grado SR 80 e (modified with the bass port mode and dynamat mod amd the doughnut ear pads which btw is worth doing!) after using the headphone output on my NAD C300 amp i thought this might improve things and yes its pretty much like chalk and cheese, very clear and musical sounding punchy bass and detailed. I have used Little dots 1, 2 and 3 before as headphone amps as i like the tube sound and this little amp to my ears doesn't lack any of the little dots virtues at at least half the price of the LD 1. All that is with the stock Chinese tubes, i have since bought some E180F mullards to try in this but they are still burning in but i do notice more punch and bass , smoothness and musicality. I know this is all relevant to what you are used to but in my opinion this little amp is worth every penny . definitely value for money , plus you can enter the world of tube rolling if you so wish. At £30 to £40 its a no brainer really, thats if you can buy one as i notice they are not available atm. Oh and when i first plugged it in i noticed the volume was quite low but after 5 mins of warming up it went up by at least 50% and this i reckon is the tubes reaching equilibrium and correct operating temperaure. Good luck!

This device has firstly given me a volume control for my HRT Microstreamer in the form of a lovely round volume button. It's a small thing but before then the Microstreamer was not my daily DAC. Secondly, I love the looks.....those tubes are a talking point. Everyone who has seen it asks 'oooh what's that?'. And finally, the sound, which can be affected by so many variables such as, in my case, DAC/Headphone/Speaker combination, even the quality of cables. And, I immediately upgraded the tubes for a measly GBP 12 the bass is now more pronounced, formed/defined, sound stage yes a bit wider. One note is the noise floor is noticeable but not off-puttingly so. If I listen on headphones connected directly to a DAC bypassing the Sabaj it is dark/silent. I actually bought 2 sets of tubes as an upgrade, In the first set, the noise floor was more intrusive than in the second set. Having installed the 2nd set the noise floor was crazy unacceptable as if something was broken, but I then swapped the positions of the tubes and the problem disappeared. So I am thinking I should have done this with my first set of tubes, doesn't matter, they'll be kept as spares. Although you can hear the noise floor it reminds me of when I used to listen to vinyl records, which were never dark silent. But once the music gets going I don't notice it, especially if you're playing through speakers I find it hard to believe anyone will hear it. Anyway enough rambling, it's great, I love it. I love the sound, I love the looks and it adds functionality for me.

I agonised for months on whether to buy a dedicated headphone amp costing upwards of £300, else try one of the inexpensive desktop Chinese valve amps. These seemed so cheap that they couldn't be that great, could they? I have a separate DAC/AMP which cost about 10 times the amount of this amp, but although it really digs up the detail and separates the instruments, I found it to be clinical on much of the music I listened to. I decided that for £35-£100 I would take a chance an see whether one of these amps would solve my problem. I have had this amp for a week and now it has started to shine. I chose this amp out of the many on here and for £40 you can't go wrong. It does take around 10 - 20 hours of listening to really shine but has been this missing link for me. I still have the detail of the DAC, but filtered through the glass tubes of this tiny amp, has made listening much more pleasurable. Vocals and instruments sound more 'real' and not so harshly clinical. Used on it's own the amp holds its own, the separation is there, although the detail (in my opinion) can be improved with a good quality DAC. Switching on a blue light flashes, there is a small audible click and the light changes to a steady blue. This I guess is the time that is taken to warm up the tubes ready for operation. There is a headphone output and a source input at the front, both 3.5mm jack. Input is handy at the front, but also a twin rca left and right jack at the back for standard components if needed. I chose this amp as it was the most aesthetically pleasing of the amps on Amazon and eBay, it was also the best design in my opinion. It is solidly built and the tubes are already in situ when you get the amp. You can upgrade them if you like, but I am happy with the sound I am getting from the tubes supplied. I may experiment with other tubes at a later date, but see no reason, as they do the job in my opinion. The power supply isn't the best and this would be the first upgrade for me before I consider any changes to the tubes. Only on only one occasion so far, there was no power to the amp and I think this is down to the power supply unit. Unplugging and plugging back in solved the problem. Overall I recommend this amp and it is an ideal size for my bedside table for late night listening. Just remember like a fine wine, it gets better over time (the term I believe in hi-fi terms is 'burn in').

Works beautifully, cleans up the sound coming from my sub par motherboards built in sound, boost quality in a subtle but great way, but does not boost bass all that much, so if that is what your looking for this isn't your product. could have been built a little better, some things feel loose, like the volume control wheel and power switch though that could just be my product, when you turn on the amp, regardless if it was just turned off, it will take approximately 15 - 20 seconds to be fully started. Also the unit can get quite warm really quick, even just 10 minutes after being turned on, not hot enough to burn but it is warm enough that you don't want to touch it around the tubes for more than a couple seconds especially after a days use, not a big issue for the sound quality you get in return. I love this product for what it is, especially at this price, and it's crystal clear sound is great for some higher quality headphones or even some bookshelf speakers, overall a great product!

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Me sorprendió que por el precio sonará tan bien...

I recieved the amp and tried it for a while as is. Nothing special so far.... Maybe time to do some tweaking..... My setup is: - Pro-Ject RPM 5.1 turntable with Ortofon Quintet Red - Cambridge Audio Alva Duo phonostage - HifiMan HE-4XX headphone I took the amp apart and desoldered the 4556 opamps (straight on the PCB, no feet), replaced them with 8-pin feet in order to swap different opamps..... For now I use 2 Oracle II opamps. Sound great. Some OPA2604 are on order. The tubes (Chinese brand) I swapped for now for Russian build 6J9, I bought a matched quartet (so I have some extra...). I ordered also some Phillips E180F tubes. I am very pleased with the overall sound in my setup so far. (note: the PCB needs a cleanup, use alcohol and an old thoothbrush. There is a lot of flux residu on the PCB)

i thought this would be just ok how wrong was i, this is the door opener to tube amps just spend a few dollars on nos tubes got Russian ones matched for $15 au improved sound cannot speak highly enough drives power hungry headphones with volume to spare